Welcome to the Film and Television Action Committee Rally for Hollywood - Ladies and Gentlemen, our National Anthem...

Thank you, The Nervis Brothers Band...

First, some thank yous - to the Rally Committee, headed by Jon Scheide, Jonathan Zimmerman,Jim Shanahan, Jeff Crandall, and Brent Swift , for making this possible...

Who are we, and what are we doing here?

...We are here because we took a chance with our lives, all of us. We chose to become artists, to work as craftspeople or business owners in an art form, to spend our lives submitting to the tyranny of perfection - the exhaustion of unlimited hours, the stresses on our families...

we live with the knowledge that our work is never completed, there is always just one more thing to do. We live our lives going that extra mile because, why? Nobody knows why, we just do it because that is who we are and how we were made, and, of course, we have a hell of a fine time doing it...

Doing what we love and must do comes at a cost, and now we are paying that cost...

Our roles have evolved relentlessly - we are no longer the subjects of paternalistic studios, we are freelance, and that means, in this time of ruthless adherence to the rules of the market, that we are disposable.

how ironic. We are being penalized for becoming the most cost-efficient labor force, the most skilled, the most sophisticated....

because we have won a fair share of the pie by turning out the best product on earth, it has been decided that maybe the best product is not wanted, after all...

In 1997 the Canadian government instituted a program of tax rebates for film and television production designed to attract U.S. companies -

they offered our industry a discount on labor...albeit, inexperienced labor, sometimes hired off the street and shoved into what should be highly skilled positions, but, at discount rates, you dont expect perfection, just adequacy...

These rebates, offered at the federal and provincial level, sometimes reach more than 30%. Along with a temporarily low exchange rate, 65 cents Canadian to the American dollar, this program succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, sparking a gold rush north by Hollywood producers. Other countries are following suit.

The Film and Television Action Committee represents those who are being hurt by this very successful hijacking of the American film and television industry by the government of Canada, which gets 81% of runaway production, and other foreign governments. It is outrageous that our neighbor to the north is buying, with government money, an industry that it has taken America over seventy years to build.

FTAC supports tax rebate bills, written by Scott Wildman and Sheila Kuehl, modeled on the credits available in Canada,. Producers have told us these credits are a good first step against runaway production; they will keep some pictures here. The bills are moving through the California State Assembly, supported by rallies like this one and a lobbying and letter-writing campaign by thousands of film workers and small businesses. We can win, but only if we keep fighting...

State legislators are beginning to realize that our friendly neighbor to the north is buying a multi-billion dollar industry out from under us for peanuts, but that this industry might be saved using the methods of the adversary. Our national representatives, like US Congressman Howard Berman, are beginning to enter the battle, and if we succeed in California, federal action will follow, I promise you...

It is obvious that a Canadian nerve has been struck. Why in the last few weeks have Canadian ambassadors, consuls, provincial governors, and film professionals rushed into print here in California denying that their tax rebates are working...?

The Canadians fear their successful tax incentives program will be adopted by us, and turned against them. They are correct..

California will do what its adversaries are doing: get tax rebates and other incentives for the film industry passed, encourage local governments to lower location fees and permits and supply free services for filming, and educate its citizens about the value of a healthy film and television industry to the California economy.

If we dont do this in California, we will lose the best part of a multi-billion dollar industry, and fast. We will do it. The only question is, will we do it now, or next year, 20 billion dollars in losses from now.

Join the FTAC coalition. Support us with your dollars and letters so we can carry this fight through the legislature and the governors office and awaken the Los Angeles city and county government.

We say we do not have to be victims of the market. We are not going to go quietly while our fate is decided in the columns of a spreadsheet. We are not disposable. We are not a commodity. We are not turnips or soybeans or steer hides; we are the hard-working citizens of the greatest nation on earth, a nation with a tradition of fair play for all, a tradition of speaking out against injustice...

This rally is not the last...these bills are not the last...they have not heard the last of us...

We will not stand by and let a foreign government buy our jobs and our lives and the future of our families... we will not be globalized, down-sized, de-cruited and despised...

We helped build this industry and this town and state and nation, and we will not give up our lives without a fight!